Date
7-22-2025
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)
Chair
James D. Gifford Jr.
Keywords
perichoresis, Farewell Discourse, Father's house, abide, John 14
Disciplines
Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
Ellison, Bradley Wayne, "John 14:2‒3: Perichoresis in the Farewell Discourse" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7228.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7228
Abstract
In the final week prior to the crucifixion, Jesus and his core group of disciples assembled in an upper room in Jerusalem, where he delivered to them his Farewell Discourse, during which he revealed that he would soon be departing from them. As a result, the disciples were severely distressed. To comfort them, Jesus assured them he would soon return to them. While saying so, he spoke of his “Father’s house,” which has “many rooms,” and stated he was returning “to the Father” in order “to prepare a place for” them (John 14:2‒3, 12 ESV 2016). Minutes later, he affirmed that his disciples “abide” in him, and he in them (John 15:1‒11 ESV 2016).
Historically, Christian scholars have taken the “Father’s house” to be heaven and its “many rooms” to be physical dwellings there. Each disciple and by extension all believers, thus have a separate “place” prepared for and awaiting them in heaven. At the same time, “to abide” has been taken to mean “to remain” loyal and obedient to Jesus. These interpretations, which were originally applied to a merit-based soteriological construct, are now held in tension between realized and inaugurated eschatology, as Jesus’s promise to return to his disciples is said to be a reference to his Second Advent. The disciples, however, for their part, would have considered the “Father’s house” to be a reference to the temple in Jerusalem.
Inasmuch as the disciples misunderstood what Jesus said, scholars have misinterpreted his words. When Jesus spoke of his “Father’s house” and its “many rooms,” he was referring to himself and his disciples, and when he spoke of the “place” he was going to “prepare” for them, he was referring to their salvific state of being in a perichoretic relationship with him and with the Father, in whom they would ever “abide,” or live, via the “indwelling” of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’s promised return is no longer pending, for it already occurred when he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, and when the Holy Spirit indwelt them after his ascension.
